Liberia

Within the Tubmanburg ETU is a changing area where local and international staff with the International Organization for Migration will be donning goggles and other protective equipment to care for patients.

Carol Han, USAID/OFDA

Latest West Africa Ebola Fact Sheet

Key Developments

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) declared an official end to the large-scale 2014/15 EVD outbreak in West Africa in January 2016. The most recent confirmed case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa was identified in Guinea on April 6, 2016. In June, WHO declared an end to EVD clusters in Guinea and Liberia; WHO previously declared an end to the latest EVD cluster in Sierra Leone in March. All three countries completed 90 days of heightened surveillance per WHO’s recommended guidance.

In FY 2016, the U.S. Government (USG) continued to respond to humanitarian needs related to the outbreak. As the number of new EVD cases declined, USG partners transitioned from emergency response activities toward efforts to build national- and community-level capacity to prepare for and respond to future infectious disease outbreaks. Since FY 2014, the USG has responded with more than $2.7 billion in humanitarian assistance for EVD response efforts.

Background

In the wake of accelerated EVD transmission countrywide, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared a state of emergency on August 6, enabling the GoL to deploy troops and police to impose quarantines, when necessary, to combat the spread of EVD.

On August 4, U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac declared a disaster due to the effects of the EVD outbreak in Liberia. In response, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated a U.S. Government (USG) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to help coordinate and augment EVD outbreak response efforts throughout Liberia. As of late December, the USG had provided a total of nearly $815 million to support the humanitarian response in EVD-affected countries of West Africa.